1897] CURRENT LITERATURE 63 
thirty-three species are enumerated, to which further search will doubtless 
many. Among the Agaricacee the following new species are described : 
Coprinus sulcatus, C. sulphureus, Hypholoma flocculentum, Agaricus bulbosus, 
Pluteolus californicus, Pluteus magnus, P. californicus. Artificial keys to the 
genera of each order are given, which will doubtless greatly increase the 
usefulness of the list to collectors in this region. We must again express the 
conviction that such a catalogue is not the place for the publication of new 
species, nor for the promulgation of new schemes of classification C. R. B. 
PROFESSOR WARBURG’S new book on the nutmeg’ is the result of eight 
years of studyand travel. Already a recognized authority on the Myristicacez, 
and with several years of travel and experience in the land of the nutmeg, 
it is highly fitting that the author should have undertaken a more general 
work, appealing not alone to botanists, but to all interested in the history, 
culture, trade, and commercial value of the myristicas. It was Dr. Warburg 
who first introduced to science the well-known ‘long nutmeg” of culture 
(MZ. argentea Warb.), though formany years it had been familiar to commerce 
as second only in importance to JZ. fragams. It had long been confused by 
botanists with J/. fatua, a species of no particular commercial value, and 
curiously enough this confusion was not finally cleared up until Dr. Warburg 
found the plant less than ten years ago in New Guinea and gave an exact 
diagnosis of the species. Interesting and curious bits of historical and tradi- 
tional information abound throughout the book. Accounts of the discovery 
of the Banda Islands, the home of the nutmeg, the gradual spread of its cul- 
ture from the Indian Archipelago over the tropical world, descriptions of the 
principal nutmegs of commerce, detailed methods of culture, exhaustive com- 
pendium of trade statistics, economic products, etc., constitute the general 
content of the book. The reviewer is at once impressed with the complete- 
ness of the work, and the general scientific style and arrangement. Too 
many so-called monographs of culture plants have in the past been fragmen- 
tary, often compilations of similar worthless publications, constituting a 
hapless mixture of true and false, conjecture finding place indiscriminately 
the well earn all thrown together without reference or citation.— 
B. ULI 
NOTES FOR STUDENTS. 
A REPORT on the forests of Western Australia ® by J. Ednie-Brown, F. L. 
S., conservator of forests, issued as a government publication, contains a 
large amount of interesting information about Australian trees. The illustra- 
er eaman O.: Die Muscatnuss, ihre Geschichte, Botanik, Kultur, Handel u 
Verwerthun 0. 40 Bogen, 3 laos tet 4 Lithogr., 1 Kart., 12 Tex banbitd, 
piri Wilhelm ake heeiaa M 2 
ROWN, J. EDNIE.— Report on as forests of western Australia, their descrip- 
